Cultivating Virtue: Moral Progress and the Kantian State

After examining the ethical and political writings of Immanuel Kant, one finds an apparent paradox in his philosophy as his perfectionist moral teachings appear to be linked to his anti-perfectionist political theory. Specifically, he writes that the perfection of moral character can only take place for an individual who is inside of civil society, a condition where no laws may legitimately be implemented expressly for the purpose of trying to make individuals moral. Kant believes that living in civil society is a necessary condition for an individual to refine his talents and reason completely, a process required by morality. I believe, however, that the connection between his moral and political theory runs much deeper than simply facilitating the refinement of talents. Kant's moral theory focuses on an individual's cultivation of virtue, but this cultivation cannot be most satisfactorily completed unless that individual is a member of civil society. Put differently, civil society plays a necessary role in cultivating an individual's character so that he is able to act from maxims consistent with the moral law, out of the respect for the law itself. However, because he believes that civic laws primarily intended to encourage moral cultivation cannot be implemented legitimately, it seems curious that this condition should play such a significant role in Kant's moral philosophy. Through this examination of Kant's moral and political theory, it will be shown that Kant's political society establishes a condition necessary for an individual's complete cultivation of virtue, not by implementing laws that make men moral but by weakening the forces of heteronomy, thereby removing barriers to moral action.

BeiserFrederick. (1992). Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism: The Genesis of Modern German Political Thought, 1790-1800 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

HöffeOtfried. (1994). lntmanuel Kant (Albany: State University of New York Press).

KantImmanuel. (1998). Critique of Pure Reason (CPR), transl. GuyerPaul and WoodAllen, in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

KantImmanuel. (1983). ‘Idea for a universal history with a cosmopolitan intent’ (UH). transl. HumphreyTed, in Immanuel Kant: Perpetual Peace and Other Essays (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company).

KantImmanuel. (1996). ‘Religion within the boundaries of mere reason’ (Rel), transl. GiovanniGeorge di, in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant: Religion and Rational Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

KantImmanuel. (1999). ‘Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals’ (GR), transl. GregorMary in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

KantImmanuel. (1999). ‘Critique of Practical Reason’ (CPrR), transl. GregorMary, in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

KantImmanuel. (1999). ‘On the common saying: that may be correct in theory, but it is of no use in practice’ (TP), transl. GregorMary, in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).